As space missions become longer and ambitions for deep-space travel grow, scientists
are working to understand how life beyond Earth may affect every system in the human
body.
Two years after her initial study took flight, , and collaborators are continuing to push the frontier of women鈥檚 health in space,
this time by examining how altered gravity may affect female biology.
Begum Mathyk, MD (Photo by Ryan Rossy)
In a first-of-its-kind study, a team led by Mathyk, a physician-scientist in the USF
Health Morsani College of Medicine , set out to understand the impact of space travel on the vaginal microbiome.
Published in , the study demonstrated that parabolic flight can induce acute physiological stress
and alter host microbiome interactions. Their work provides the first evidence that
altered gravity and spaceflight-related stress can significantly affect the vaginal
microbiome in women, while having minimal effect on the oral microbiome.
鈥淭his study gives us an early indication that female biological systems respond differently
to the unique conditions associated with space travel,鈥 Mathyk said.
The vaginal microbiome plays an important role in women鈥檚 health, helping support
immune function and maintain healthy tissue. Disruption to its microbial balance brought
on by extreme physiological or psychological stress has been linked to inflammation,
the increased potential for infection and altered immune responses. In conditions
such as endometriosis, microbial dysbiosis is associated with chronic inflammation,
altered immune responses and disease progression.
鈥淥ver the past few decades, the clinical relevance of the vaginal microbiome has extended
beyond its traditional associations with bacterial vaginosis or vulvovaginal candidiasis,鈥
Mathyk said. 鈥淚t has also emerged as a non-invasive biomarker for gynecological disease
detection, cancer, pregnancy and health monitoring.鈥
Despite its importance, changes to the vaginal microbiome have not yet been explored
in space travel conditions, until now.
In the new study, four women of reproductive age participated in parabolic flights
aboard a modified aircraft that simulates the periods of microgravity and hypergravity
experienced similar to space travel. Mathyk and her colleagues found that parabolic
flight caused greater site-specific changes in the vaginal microbiome than in the
oral microbiome.
Participants also showed signs of increased physiological stress after spaceflight,
including heightened cortisol levels, due to changes in their microbiomes. The findings
point to the need for further research to determine the potential scope of those changes.
鈥淭hese findings highlight the sensitivity of the vaginal microbial ecosystem to spaceflight
stressors,鈥 Mathyk said. 鈥淭hey underscore the need for longitudinal and mechanistic
studies to determine the persistence, clinical significance and potential health implications
of these changes during longer-duration space missions.鈥
Also contributing to the study were USF Health researchers Shalini Jain, Hariom Yadav,
Rohit Shukla, Vivek Kumar, Sidharth Mishra and Anthony Imudia, as well as partners
from the National Research Council Canada and the International Institute of Astronautical
Sciences.
"Understanding how the microbiome responds to the unique physiological stressors associated
with spaceflight is an important step toward understanding and protecting astronaut
health, particularly women鈥檚 health,鈥 said Jain. 鈥淥ur study demonstrates that parabolic
flight can induce site-specific changes in the microbiome of women, highlighting that
different body sites may respond differently to the physical and physiological demands
of spaceflight.鈥
The findings, she adds, provide an important foundation for understanding how the
microbiome may contribute to human adaptation to spaceflight and may ultimately help
inform strategies to support astronaut health during future space missions.
鈥淭his work also highlights the value of collaborative, interdisciplinary research
in advancing our understanding of the human microbiome in space,鈥 Jain said.
The study builds on Mathyk鈥檚 previous work examining women鈥檚 health in space, including
the first gynecologic ultrasound studies in microgravity. Her research also includes
an NIH-funded project using advanced tissue chips to better understand how the space
environment affects female reproductive physiology and studies investigating how spaceflight
may influence future fertility. She also collaborates with USF Health Voice Center
researchers, Yael Bensoussan and Jamie Toghranegar to evaluate voice biomarkers for
applications in space medicine.
Such work is becoming increasingly pertinent as space missions grow longer and the
possibility of lunar habitation and deep-space travel moves closer to reality. In
addition, astronaut corps include a growing proportion of women, and medical research
has traditionally skewed toward males, leaving knowledge gaps in women鈥檚 health and
sex-specific responses to spaceflight.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to understand whatever we are exposed to as human beings,鈥 she said. 鈥淚s it just a physiological adaptation, or is there a point when it will cause a problem for us or turn into a disease? Is it something that can be reversed later on? The whole space community is trying to understand this.鈥
As an OBGYN, she wonders what would happen if she has a patient one day who asks if there are any precautions she should take for space travel.
鈥淢aybe they鈥檒l be staying there for a month or years, maybe going on a honeymoon, whatever the case might one day be,鈥 she said. 鈥淣ASA is already talking about establishing a Moon base and future Mars missions. That raises so many health care questions for me and, of course, research and validation take time, so we need to begin building the evidence